Apparently, there are German words for this feeling -- sehnsucht and fernweh.
The north bay of Bear Head Lake
For 23 days, from July 24th through August 16th, I was on this year's road trip. We stayed at my mom's on the first night to have a birthday breakfast with her the next morning (it was her 80th!), and after that, it was tent camping every night.
We went to Buffalo, NY to visit the
Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site on the morning of the 26th, and cut across southern Ontario to Michigan afterwards. The border crossing into Canada was more adversarial than a trip we made back in May. I'm not looking forward to how our upcoming trip in November will go.
 |
| A chandelier, converted to electricity from gas, in the library where the inauguration happened |
 |
| the eastern shore of Lake Huron at Pinery Provincial Park |
We stayed at
Pinery Provincial Park that Sunday night, which I wish we'd been able to explore more of. Every one of the Ontario Provincial Parks we've visited or stayed at over the past few years are really amazing gems.
Pat wanted to visit some sites in the U.P., so it was across the Mackinac Bridge and into pasty-land. A quick stop in St. Ignace on Monday night was followed by drive through Marquette to visit an old fishing spot of Pat's, then a stay at
Lake Gogebic and a trip to the
Porcupine Mountains.
 |
| Pat fished at Lake Gogebic. There's a reason they call it fishing and not catching. |
 |
| A loon on Lake Gogebic |
 |
| Lake of the Clouds in the Porcupine Mountains |
We hiked the Presque Isle River trail to see where the river meets Lake Superior.
 |
Pat standing partway up the stairs that lead down, down, down the trail to the mouth of the river.
|
 |
| Presque Isle River meets Lake Superior |
We didn't stop anywhere in Wisconsin, as Pat wanted to go to the newly opened Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, ND. Since he had a flight home out of Casper, WY on August 2, that constrained when and where else we could go. We stayed a night in Minnesota about 20 minutes from the southern shores of Mille Lacs Lake (talk about redundant naming!), then drove across North Dakota.
 |
| a damselfly near Sweet Briar Lake |
If you're going to go to the
Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, make sure you know that you need
timed entrance tickets. Sadly, we ended up entering around 3:30PM (well, our tickets were for 3PM, but the line to enter was slow). We spent about 2 hours inside, and could have spent more time, except my knee started hurting badly partway through. We also had a campsite in Custer, SD that night, and it was a longer drive than I anticipated. The "library" is more of a museum, taking you from TR's childhood through his post-presidency years. There's a lot of interactive features that allow you to form a "journal" of your visit, but a good amount of it is AI (such as the photos that insert you into various eras). Between the AI and the lines to do the various interactives, I opted not to do a lot of it, so my journal is kind of sparse.
 |
| A lone bison standing on a ridge at Theodore Roosevelt National Park |
 |
| a takeaway I had from the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library |
The last full day with Pat was spent at
Wind Cave National Park and
Custer State Park in the Black Hills of South Dakota. I suggested camping at Elk Mountain Campground and getting two nights there so that we didn't have to pack everything before heading to Casper to drop him off at the airport, and it made things very calm and easy heading into Sunday morning.
 |
| Wild burros at Custer State Park |
 |
| The Needles at Custer SP |
 |
| A bison bull at Wind Cave National Park. During the rut, where there's one, there are usually more |
Bison on the move at Wind Cave National Park
 |
| a fledgling robin near our campsite |
 |
| night skies out west are incredible |
 |
| The morning view from Pat's side of the tent |
After I dropped him off, it was back to the campground, and the beginning of the lonely part of my trip. I'll (hopefully) complete this later in a part 2.
Posts
